ARTICLES ABOUT WEIGHT BY DATE - PAGE 3

William Howard Taft was America's heaviest president. Of course, he would have preferred being seen and remembered for something else, and did take steps to lose weight. Not surprisingly, though, Taft's story of weight loss and regain, described the Oct. 15 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine , sounds completely familiar today, more than 100 years later. Using correspondence and archival sources, Deborah Levine, an assistant professor at Providence College in Rhode Island, tells the story of Taft's struggles with his girth.

Each week the Miami Dolphins offensive and defensive coordinators must answer questions to the media. Sometimes they are revealing, and sometimes they aren't. We'll do our best to bring you those discussions unfiltered in this space. Here is what Dolphins offensive coordinator Mike Sherman had to say this week, which included his 7,000th endorsement of Ryan Tannehill, his precious quarterback. (Inside joke: Bruno Mars' song Treasure should be used as the soundtrack when talking about Tannehill)

Giancarlo Stanton is a physical machine. The Miami Marlins' right fielder, once sought after by major colleges to play football, makes sure to run, lift weights and maintain his physique. In fact, he was recently profiled nude in ESPN The Magazine's "The Body" issue. "At the end of the season, the goal is to not be completely exhausted. That's what a training regimen should be for," says Stanton, 23. "You might feel like playing every day is enough, but it's not. " Q: What's your workout routine?

CORAL GABLES — Before talking business, Tony Musto makes sure his audience knows his background. He's not just another Ph.D with book smarts minus experience. He was a college wrestler who learned a lot about how not to take care of a body. Now he's the nutritionist for the Miami football team — the ultimate man behind the curtain who's helped transform a roster. Relating to players on an athlete-to-athlete level, Musto earned the trust of a program in need of a diet. But, as the doctor will tell you, it's more about sensible and well-timed eating.

A new discovery could result in every overweight person's dream: Imagine a pill that would burn fat and build muscle like an athlete's. Jupiter - based Scripps Florida has designed a "drug candidate" that could potentially lead to such a medication. The compound SR9009 significantly increased exercise endurance and reduced obesity in mice, Scripps scientists found in a collaboration with Institut Pasteur de Lille in France. The results were published Sunday in the journal Nature Medicine.

Consider it one of the most extreme cases of role reversal this season. Miami Heat guard Mario Chalmers and LeBron James had a moment in the third quarter of Sunday's Game 2 of the NBA Finals. The conversation went like this. Chalmers: "Let's go for the kill. " James: "I'm with you. " That's right, the four-time most valuable player was following the brash, young point guard. It was Chalmers who scored a game-high 19 points on Sunday to help the Heat even the best-of-seven series against the San Antonio Spurs.

It's the end of their television stint, but the three South Florida participants of TV's "Mission: Makeover" say it's not the end of their journey. The women spent six months on a quest that not only helped them lose weight but gave them a greater understanding of nutrition, the emotions attached to eating, and tips on how to change their lives, rather than focus on the scale. At the end of their taping, "Mission: Makeover," a segment of Lifetime's "The Balancing Act," on May 20 lauded Blanca Varela of Plantation, who dropped 51 pounds and now weighs 169. "If there's one thing I could share, it would be to tell people there's hope and a way to do it," said Varela, 47, who has battled depression and bi-polar issues and was on her first diet at age 9. She said the greatest gift she has received is "believing in myself again.

I hope Chris Christie is telling the truth, that his weight-loss surgery was for health reasons, not the White House. I hope it's true because the man needed to lose weight. And it looks like the New Jersey governor has lost some poundage, since the lap-band surgery in February. He says he did it because he wants to be healthy or his family, not because he wants to look good in a 2016 presidential run. Again, I hope he's tell the truth. And I hope he would have done it even if he had no presidential ambitions at all. Oh, I think he would be a good Republican candidate.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's political career may have hit a road block. That would not normally deter Christie who approaches all confrontations with his bellicose style and imposing size. No question or comment is responded to without the trademarked Christie bluntness. After all, who would risk a follow up question to a man who looks like he would like to — and could — crush you. He even whacked a spider in front of kindergarten kids, when a normal pol would have gently picked it up with a tissue and released it into the school yard.

Samoan Airlines' idea to charge passengers by weight is so sensible and Republican that you have to wonder why nobody ever thought of it before. Like any other issue, it's all about the prism through which you observe it. When you consider that every pound of adipose tissue borne by a passenger takes a certain amount of fuel to heft into the air, it's unfair as well as un-American to ask skinny people, who pay the same amount for their tickets...